France pulled out its culinary big guns today for one of the greatest kitchen challenges ever: cooking lunch for the largest one-day gathering of world leaders in history.
Five chefs, each awarded stars by the demanding judges of the Michelin food guide, joined forces for a gastronomic tour de force to defend France's culinary reputation at a climate summit in Paris.
Undaunted by the challenge of catering to banquets with their familiar perils of rubber chicken and agonisingly long waits, the quintet sought to tempt the palates of 150 leaders, from US President Barack Obama to China's President Xi Jinping or Russia's Vladimir Putin.
"It was a very good lunch, a surprising lunch, very friendly and relaxed," Albanian President Bujar Nishani told AFP after leaving his table.
Judging his meal "very tasty and delicious", Nishani said his lunch was prepared with organic foods, "which go very well with this climate summit".
Albania's leader said he washed lunch down with a glass of champagne to celebrate "cooperation and friendship".
He was among the 170 guests, including the leaders, to be wined and dined at the heavily-guarded Le Bourget conference centre on the northern outskirts of Paris.
Diners sat at 20 tables, the Elysee presidential palace said.
President Francois Hollande hosted the likes of Obama, Putin, Xi, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the table of honour.
All the dishes left the kitchen for the tables in less than an hour so as not to delay leaders trying to avert a global climate catastrophe, said Guy Krenzer, of the fine-food Paris caterer, Lenotre.
All five Michelin-starred chefs -- Yannick Alleno, Alexandre Gauthier, Nicolas Masse, Marc Veyrat and Christelle Brua -- volunteered their services for the 75-minute meal, which broke more than 12 hours of back-to-back speeches by leaders and was accompanied, naturellement, by the finest French wines.
